Burning The Ground Exclusive 1988
“So Important” was the first single taken from the fifteenth studio album Interior Design by the American rock band Sparks, the album did little to reverse the group’s commercial fortunes and did not appear on the album charts in the US or the UK. “So Important” did better reaching #8 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart on August 8, 1988, after spending ten weeks on the survey.
SIDE A:
So Important (Extremely Important Mix) 6:59
SIDE B:
So Important (Incredibly Important Mix) 6:51
So Important (Single Version) 4:31
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
U.S. CHART HISTORY:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | So Important | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | #8 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Fine Art (2) – RNTW 70410
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Maxi-Single
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
CREDITS:
- Engineer, Remix– John Thomas (5)
- Remix, Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – Ron Mael, Russell Mael
NOTES:
Digitally Recorded at the Pentagon Studio, Los Angeles
“Single Version” from the LP “Interior Design”
Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS
VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!
Password: burningtheground
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Almost forgot to mention the boys were on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concert recently. You gotta love anyone who changes the letters around on their Roland keyboard!
https://www.npr.org/artists/15399128/sparks
Great closet ’80s hit Paul! The Mael Brothers are a personal fave, and they always get airplay in L.A. somewhere, depending on the whims of radio. We used to see them out ‘n’ about in West Hollywood years ago, and were approachable. They’ve been on more labels than just about anyone I can name right now. “Modesty Plays” went unreleased except in France for ages because of legalities as they wrote it for a project called “Modesty Blaise” (IIRC) that didn’t pan out, yet KROQ played it into the ground anyway. It’s now available on a CD comp of their… Read more »
I want the 2024 transfer of “Sports” please!
Thank you Paul for this 12″. I don’t know why the “Interior Design” album is always so underrated. Sure, in late 1988, it must have sounded musically completly dated vs. growing house / dance music bands. But 36 years later, I find this album quite enjoyable. The strange thing is that in 88, they made 3 collaboration songs with french band “Les Rita Mitsouko” which are absolutly great and sounds quite different to “Interior Design”. What is even better is that Sparks still exist today, and waw, they continue to be creative and make really excellent music with their particular… Read more »
Thank you very much. This 12″ is the only Sparks single I ever bought. This was played quite a bit on the radio in LA at the time.
I’ve got to hand it to you, Paul, again and again. You are always surprising and delighting us with the coolest tracks. So many times I have missed awesome songs, either it was because of the money situation or the lack of exposure to them. You always come in handy to fill in so many gaps, and for that, I am forever grateful!! Sparks take me back to the Disco days with their relentless single, “Beat The Clock” which I love!! Then, in the 1980’s with their New Wave song, “Cool Places” with Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go’s!! Soon after,… Read more »
Thank you, Jeff I appreciate what you have to say so much. Sparks are so underrated especially here in the States. They are so much fun, and this single is an earworm that I’ve been humming all-day 🙂
Looking forward to hearing this!
I hope you enjoy it 🙂
This is totally new to me and I really like it!! I wasn’t expecting a rock edge complete with a guitar solo! I knew of Sparks only through their contribution to the Fright Night soundtrack (Armies of the Night, which I love) and their Music That You Can Dance To album and single. Looking forward to the remixes. Thank you so much Paul!!!
You’re welcome, Retro Hound. I love their track from Fright Night too 🙂 Their single “Modesty Plays” is also a favorite.
Interesting. I’ve never heard of this song or band and it’s shocking that they were on the Billboard Top Dance for 10 weeks and peaked at #8…and I’ve never heard anything about it yet was huge into club music. I guess it’s possible it had 0 airplay on the East Coast but either these Billboard stats are wrong or I’m caught off guard not knowing something about music of that era. 🙂 Their extremely long Wiki article (which name drops almost every person in music history) makes no mention of the song. Thanks for the post, Paul!
They released their first album in 1971 and have been going ever since with a string of hits from the 70s to the 90s they had most of their success in Europe. The chart stats are correct I got them from my Joel Whitburn Billboard Hot Dance/Disco book.
Sparks (band) – Wikipedia
Yes I noticed they’ve been working for almost 50 years! Thanks for clarification on where you got the stats.
Check out Edgar Wright’s documentary on the band – The Sparks Brothers.
They never got very much love in the US. Some LA hits in the 80s around their Angst In My Pants album (two songs from it appear in the film Valley Girl), but for the most part they’ve always been under the radar despite many larger bands cite them as an influence.